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Jongin holds the door open for Sehun as the latter walks inside with their two large boxes of pizza in his hands, along with ten bags of cheese sticks (courtesy of Jongin's puppy eyes reducing Sehun to a weak mess). He watches, ears twitching in anticipation and he nearly forgets to close the door behind him as he tosses his jacket on the floor and scampers off to the living room. The entire house is soon filled with the scent of freshly baked dough and Jongin finds himself nearly kneading a couch cushion to pieces as he watches Sehun place the boxes on the table.

"You better finish all of this, just saying," Sehun chuckles as he opens up Jongin's box, and he doesn't even get a chance to tell Jongin to wash up first when the latter places the box in his lap. "Don't you dare get fat stains all over my couch," he says as he sits down on the sofa, briefly worrying Jongin might choke to death as the latter scarfes down his food like there's no tomorrow. "Careful-"

Jongin wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. He can understand why his foster sister idolized pizza so much, and he doesn't think he'd have anything against eating it every day for the rest of his life. "Schorry," he giggles, grabbing the cushion again, only to have Sehun take it away before he can knead it. "My foster sister loved this stuff, I do too," he hums, stuffing an entire slice in his mouth and nearly choking on his own laughter when Sehun sends him a horrified look. "The fourth one, that is."

All his life, Sehun always figured cats were clean eaters, but he's seriously starting to reconsider that. He suddenly blinks, his eyes furowing. "The fourth? You've had that many?" he asks, folding a slice of his own pizza and biting down. He swallows and runs a hand through his hair. "If...if you don't mind me asking, how many...uh--"

"Nine," Jongin says casually, brushing his hands together. "Well, technically ten, but I only lived with them for a day," he adds. He rips open a bag of cheese sticks with way too much force than necessary, staring wide eyed as the contents spew out all over the couch. Next to him, Sehun doesn't seem all that bothered, so he simply picks up a cheese stick and stuffs it in his mouth. "Can we turn on the TV?" he asks, far too lazy to reach over and grab the remote.

Sehun nods after a minute, and he turns on the television, but he doesn't seem to be one bit interested in the soap opera playing on the screen as he leans back against the cushions. "Uh, so you've had ten families so far?" he asks, blinking in surprise as he his head aside.

"Nine," Jongin chuckles, watching the man and woman on the TV kiss passionately as he shoves another cheese stick into his mouth. "You're better than them, though," he hums, eyebrows furrowing when the scene soon turns . "Why's he doing that to her--"

Scrambling for the remote, Sehun quickly turns the television off before placing the remote behind his back. When Jongin questions him, he simply mutters something under his breath before clearing his throat. "Wait, so...I mean, if you don't mind me-- That must've been difficult...y'know--" He gestures awkwardly as he watches Jongin eat pizza without a care in the world. "I-- We don't need to talk about this if you don't want t--"

"Nah, it's not that difficult," Jongin responds, leaning back against the couch and not even asking permission before resting his legs in Sehun's lap. "I mean, getting kicked out , but I never blame them," he adds, humming in contentment as he grabs a pillow and kneads it. "There's so many cracks in your ceiling--"

"What do you mean?" Sehun asks, almost a little embarrassed at how eager he sounds. He takes a bite of his pizza and curses when he accidentally bites down on his tongue.

Jongin grabs a cheese stick and fiddles with it, accidentally breaking it in half in the process. He lets the other half tumble to the floor. "You've probably heard and seen, but like..." He stuffs the other half in his mouth and begins chewing. "We're pretty difficult to deal with, it's just...sort of how it is and has always been." A piece of food falls from his mouth and he giggles. "We're wired a certain way and you're wired a certain way, and from experience it's rare to find, y'know, a perfect balance." He sits up and attempt to swipe the remote, only to fail and flop back down with a huff.

Sehun listens, eyebrows furrowed as he keeps his eyes fixated on Jongin, but his gaze soon travels down to Jongin's mismatching socks. They're patterned with teddy bears and he chuckles slightly. "But still, ten families is a lot," he mumbles. He doesn't know how crushed his soul would've felt after going through ten different families at such a young age. It almost makes his heart hurt a little. "I mean,-"

"I usually think like this," Jongin chuckles, playing with his fingers as he sits up slightly. "I don't expect anyone to change for my sake and I therefore don't expect them to understand and or expect me to change for their sake," he hums, stretching out his long limbs. "So I don't blame them when things take a turn for the worst." His eyebrows furrow when he realizes something. "Why should I, anyway? I mean, my friend Taemin; he's a hybrid, by the way, taught me that holding a grudge against the people who gave you a chance and took care of you and made you happy is just stupid, anyway, so." He sits up and plays with Sehun's tie. "Not to mention a lot of my foster parents taught me cool things about life, so hating them would be useless, right?"

Sehun blinks as his brain attempts to process Jongin's words. He figures it's either him or Jongin who's crazy, since he personally doesn't think he would be able to move on after being rejected by one family, let alone ten. But he keeps the comment to himself and proceeds to fiddle with the hem of Jongin's (or, to be exact, his own) sweatpants. "Yeah, but like...being rejected by your own family must be harsh, at least a little bit, right?" 

Jongin shrugs. "Like I said, we go into these things open minded," he hums, giggling loudly when Sehun accidentally tickles the underside of his foot. "Like, we're well aware of how difficult we can be to care for, but we're always grateful for being given a chance despite that, which I think is awesome," he adds, moving his foot and nearly kicking Sehun in the face. "I mean, I tend to think that the saddest part isn't being kicked out, but not have been able to prove yourself, anyway." He points to the TV. "Can we watch the thing again??? Pleasepleaseplease--"

"What do you mean by proving yourself?" Sehun blurts out, placing a hand on the remote before Jongin can grab it. He finds himself strangely intruiged, even though Jongin looks like he's seconds away from bouncing off the walls.

Jongin pouts a little. "I meant like--" He has to close his mouth, because he really hasn't thought about this before. He racks his brain for something to say until it sort of hits him. "I mean...you know, like, people tend to take us in because we look human, so like...I guess you could say that they're fooled into thinking we'll be easy to care for," he says slowly, not even sure if his words make sense to himself as he fiddles with a pillow. "But they usually find out that we're not entirely human pretty quickly, and most people usually react in two ways, which is like, either treating us entirely like animals or either like human beings. Both really ." He grimaces, recalling a certain event a year ago that still makes his skin crawl; a certain foster family that seemingly couldn't handle the fact that he wasn't a regular human being and forced him to eat and sleep on the floor, do his business in a box and make him ride in the trunk of the car, which ultimately resulted in him running away for the first time. It still haunts him to the point that he refuses to tell Sehun about it. "There...was this one family that decided to try to morph me into a regular member of the family and made me wear suits and apply for university and a job and stuff, it was terrible." He shakes his head at the memory and bites down on the cheese stick in his hand.

Sehun blinks. He's about to make a comment about how good Jongin looked in the tuxedo back at the store but swallows it. "," he breathes, unsure of what to say as he watches Jongin attempt to balance the cheese stick on his finger. "That must really ," he says, patting Jongin's leg for reassurance, even though the latter doesn't look at all bothered, which he finds strange.

"It's fine, it's just frustrating how it has to be so set in stone, you know?" Jongin chuckles and Sehun nods in understanding. The fact that he's never cat-like or human-like enough for just about anybody will probably bug him to the grave. "I mean yeah, in both cases they just end up getting frustrated when they realize you can't do either and give you the boot, and you're back to square one." He sighs and kneads the pillow on his stomach, a giggle leaving his lips when Sehun accidentally tickles his foot again. "But I'll never be mad at any of them, though, I'd be surprised if I could put up with myself for longer than five minutes." He cackles when he sees the look on Sehun's face. "In a good way, though-!"

Sehun nods as Jongin speaks, and is briefly awfully glad to have been as fully human before biting down on a slice of pizza. "I'd probably hate humans for the rest of my life," he chuckles only half jokingly before leaning back further and picking up a piece of cheese stick. "I seriously admire you," he adds, handing it to Jongin, who eagerly accepts it.

"I know a few friends who feel that way, the ones who didn't have it so good," Jongin replies, stomach tightening when he thinks back to the fall of last year, when his (ex) best friend, Luhan, came up to him and cried about being ruthlessly beaten by his owner, and his other friend, Siwon, who ended up being turned down by just about everybody because of his intimidating looks. Jongin isn't sure, but he's at least 99% sure that both Luhan and Siwon have turned to a life on the street, after cursing the entire human race, and Jongin swallows thickly at the thought. "Like, they ended up in abusive families or couldn't find homes because they looked scary." He pouts before giggling slightly. "I've always been told that I usually get taken so frequently because I'm pretty," he laughs, even though he seriously questions that statement.

Sehun also finds himself chuckling, but a look of concern is still etched on his face as he continues to rub Jongin's leg. "Yeah, you're probably right," he hums, brushing some crumbs off Jongin's chest. He doesn't want to say it out loud, but he also wouldn't be surprised if some hybrids turned out to be abusive and violent towards their families, but never in his life would he think that Jongin would resort to something like that. "It's a good thing not everybody has it that difficult, huh." 

Jongin nods, nearly choking on a slice of pizza as he chews. "Yeah, like, I can understand why they hate humans, but I could never," he says sincerely, food showing as he talks, much to Sehun's disgust. "Like, I don't see why I'm obligated to hate the people who loved me and took care of me for so long." And taught me how to fish properly, he thinks before swallowing. "Although I sorta came close to disliking one of my families, but it was a while ago," he blurts out and mentally slaps himself when Sehun raises an eyebrow. He unconsciously fiddles with the threads on the cushion before sighing. "It was-- Uh, the very first foster family I had, when I was fifteen." He swallows, avoiding Sehun's eyes. "They were actually the first ones to treat and view like a human, it was actually kind of scary." He sighs again before telling Sehun the entire story; how their 9 year old daughter fell in love with him and taught him to draw, how his foster parents were dead set on making him apply for college and getting him a job, how they would actually hold meaningful conversations with him at the dinner table, how they later taught him how to use a fork and knife, how they gave him his own room, and how he genuinely felt loved for the first time in a long time.

Jongin continues to avoid Sehun's eyes (he isn't even sure if Sehun is listening anymore, and Jongin figures he's probably boring the former to death, but he finds his tongue moving inside his mouth as the words fall out) as he talks about how well everything went for an entire year and how everything changed when they started noticing him sleeping at the foot of his bed every night, how they quickly picked up on his unattentiveness and short attention span and how he would occasionally chase flying things, yet continued to force him into a normal human lifestyle, which he utterly hated and struggled to stick to. Jongin ignores the lump in his throat as he finds himself confessing the day it all fell apart; the day he accidentally knocked over a vase whilst chasing a butterfly, and it didn't take long for him to notice his family slowly isolating themselves from him, little by little. The little girl would still talk to him, although she was quickly told by her parents to stay away from him, much to Jongin's dismay. Jongin vividly remembers how slight isolation soon morphed into utter neglect, and he recalls sitting at home by himself whilst his family spent the days outside, after they stopped bringing him with them. With a knot in his stomach, Jongin avoids Sehun's unreadable expression as he tells the latter all about how he gradually felt more free to be himself, being alone in the house everyday, and how much he regretted growing too restless as a result of boredom and loneliness, and as a result, tore down curtains and furniture, which he would later turn out to have dire consequences when his foster mother yelled at him after arriving home; his first ever scolding; and Jongin clenches his jaw when he recalls snapping and hissing before slashing her right across the cheek in irritation. Squeezing the pillow against his chest, Jongin feels Sehun rub his knee when he recalls sleeping in park bushes for a week before another family decided to take him in. Afterwards, Jongin has to grab two cheese sticks and shove them both in his mouth in an attempt to pull himself together. 

Sehun is silent for a minute, making sure Jongin is finished before speaking. "Christ, Jongin, that really ," he sighs, running his hand through Jongin's hear reassuringly as the latter chews away. "You were young, though," he says, eyes warm as he watches Jongin shove cheese sticks into his mouth with one hand whilst kneading the pillow anxiously with the other. 

Jongin nods. "Yeah, I guess." He has to exhale slowly to regain his composure before he sits up. "I like to say that I regret it, but I don't think I do, I mean, we are who we are and they are who they are," he mumbles, tail puffing up when Sehun places a reassuring hand on his thigh. He soon relaxes, feeling his stomach cramp up from all the cheese sticks subsequently. "They were genuinely nice people and taught me a lot of stuff, like to look both ways before crossing," he adds, bursting into laughter when Sehun chuckles into his fist. "That and to fish well, which is great since it fishing makes me really happy."

Nodding, Sehun ruffles Jongin's hair as the latter rests his head on his lap. "Is that when you started, you know, moving around?" he asks, figuring he probably could have phrased that differently a second later, and he winces in pain when Jongin elbows his groin whilst getting comfortable. He remembers his sister telling him something along the lines of meeting somebody halfway when it comes to relationships, and he wonders if the same rule can be applied here. 

"Yup," Jongin says, popping the 'p', as he grabs another cheese stick despite feeling like he's about to explode. "Sometimes I wish I was an outdoor cat," he chuckles, mainly because he's fascinated by the idea of surviving outside on your own, though not so much the idea of looting dumpsters for food. He looks up and rolls onto his back. "You're the best one yet, though," he hums, kneading Sehun's tie until it's a wrinkly mess, but the latter doesn't stop him this time. 

"Really," Sehun hums, Jongin's hair, the latter's ear twitching when he accidentally grazes it with his hand. "Why's that?" He grabs a slice of pizza and blinks when Jongin takes a bite before he can register what's going on. As he squirms, he accidentally sits on the remote, both of them flinching when the television turns on. Sehun finds himself blushing at the scene playing out on the screen. How's it not over yet???

Jongin chews happily as he stares at the TV. "What are they-- Why're they doing that," he mumbles, eyes wide in curiosity as he grabs another cheese stick. It's gotten significantly dark out by now, and the screen is so bright it nearly hurts his eyes. He never realized how warm Sehun's lap is until now (in fact, this is the first time he's laid in somebody's lap without being shoved off), and Sehun quickly slaps Jongin's hand away when he unconsciously begins to knead Sehun's thigh.

"That hurts, ," Sehun huffs, avoiding the screen with every fiber of his being as a string of lewd noises fill the air. Well then. "People...do those kinds of things when they're in love." Jongin seems to be watching neutrally, tail absentmindedly swaying in the air, and Sehun quickly gets up and starts carrying the partially empty pizza boxes towards the kitchen. "Could you pick up the food on the floor, ple-"

"Are you in love with somebody?" Jongin asks, head cocked in innocent wonder as he peeks his head up from behind the armrest. His hair is so tousled his ears are barely visible.

Sehun halts as he's halfway through folding up the empty boxes. He blinks. "I'm sorry?"

"Yeah, like-" Jongin exhales in wonder. He remembers watching a so called romantic sitcom with one of his foster sisters last year. She loved it and wouldn't stop talking about it, but he recalls not understanding much, besides a lot of loud laughter. "Like, a girlfriend? Wife? Somebody who thinks you're handsome, like me," he adds absentmindedly as he traces invisible patterns into the armrest. However, it sends a static shock travelling through his hand and he shrieks. "Like, someone who makes waits for you and hugs you when you come home from work and gets up early to make you breakfast and helps you wash the dishes--"

"You've been watching far too many movies, my friend," Sehun chuckles, shaking his head as he crams the boxes into the trash can. From experience, dishwashing duty is usually what ends, not defines, majority of relationships, but he keeps it to himself. "And no, I don't," he says after a minute of silence. The neverending lewd noises seem to go on forever and it's not until he sees Jongin sitting cross legged and watching the screen like he's watching a documentary that Sehun walks over and promptly turns off the television. "It's getting late--"

"But I was watching that," Jongin whines, but he hops off the couch anyway, nearly tripping when he realizes how stuffed he is. He makes a mental note to never eat twelve cheese sticks and half a pizza in one sitting again before skipping over to the fridge. Remembering yesterday, he quickly climbs onto the counter and opens up the cabinet. He grabs the first glass he sees and practically has to beg Sehun to fill it with milk, despite the latter's protests.

"You've eaten five bags of cheese sticks, isn't that more than enough dairy for one night," Sehun mutters, although he soon gives in when Jongin folds his ears back and proceeds to send him that godforsaken doe eyed look. "Fine, fine, hold on--" He opens the fridge and he's about to unscrew the cap to the milk carton when Jongin suddenly rubs his face against his hand, and it's so unexpected Sehun nearly drops the carton. "Why do you always do that," he mumbles and proceeds to fill the glass subsequently.

Jongin blinks. He honestly has no clue why he does it, which is why they fall into an awkward silence seconds later, but it's soon broken when he squees after Sehun hands him the glass. Jongin drinks so fast that it nearly goes down the wrong pipe, and he places the glass on the counter before wiping his mouth and skipping towards the stairs. Jongin practically has to drag Sehun up the stairs, accusing the latter of being too slow, to which Sehun only retorts by calling the younger too fast, and Sehun nearly trips on the top step when Jongin gives his sleeve a harsh tug.

Sehun makes sure to keep an eye on Jongin through the reflection in the mirror as he brushes his teeth. He's interrupted several times, courtesy of Jongin inspecting a can of hair spray and proceeding to nearly spray it right in his own face, but Sehun manages to get ready in under ten minutes. Now, he really isn't sure if he's obligated to brush Jongin's teeth (or if it's even necessary, but then again, Sehun isn't going to ask Jongin if he's got feline saliva), but he decides against it, his excuse being that he only has one toothbrush. Nevertheless, Jongin doesn't seem bothered by it, and the latter is already curled up at the foot of the bed when Sehun enters his room.

"Will I get to talk to Baekhyun tomorrow too?" Jongin asks when Sehun turns off the light. He follows the latter with his gaze, chuckling when Sehun nearly stumbles in the dark. Eating so much is gradually making him feel like a rock, and he doesn't even know if he's got the energy to roll over onto his back when Sehun takes his shirt off subsequently.

Sehun blinks. "What do you mean?" he asks, chucking his shirt on the chair.

"You know, at your work," Jongin hums, ears drooping in fatigue as he rests his cheek against the cool sheets. 

Sehun stills. He hasn't even considered what he's going to do with Jongin tomorrow, but seeing as he missed one of the most important meetings of the week this morning, he's sort of torn. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," he simply says, and he pauses for a minute with his hands on his belt buckle. He contemplates it for a second, but given that it's scorching hot inside the room, he quickly slides his dress pants down his legs before folding them up and placing them on the chair. It's not until he crawls underneath the covers that he notices Jongin's stare. "What--"

"You look like the man on TV," Jongin giggles, pointing to Sehun's bare chest. Even in the dark, Sehun can see his grin as he titters loudly. 

Sehun blinks. "Is that supposed to be a compliment, or what?" he chuckles, unsure if he should be feeling guilty for exposing Jongin to such content (not that he could've helped it, but even so).

"You look better," Jongin hums, closing his eyes and spreading himself out on the bed, giving Sehun absolutely no legroom whatsoever as he exhales in contentment. He's so full that he barely hears Sehun response as he closes his eyes and falls asleep.

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